The Wing Surfers

Flight

My video submission for the 2011 NorCal Free Flight Film Festival, it won 1st in the hang gliding category.

HG CRW

Eves Tall-Chief

Eves Tall-Chief

A New Breed of CRW Dogs

Dudi's Alpine High! An impression of a flight

Dingo's - American Indian Airforce, Eves Tall Chief - A Portrait of a Local Legend

Arnel - Gringos in Valle

Van's Fort Funston Madness

Charley's Fun Year

Nova's Amazing Comeback

One Man's Calling

I'm going to start putting up my friends videos.  This is the first one up.  Rex & Melissa spent time in Ghana working on this project.

Through the Lens

Grindelwald, Switzerland - Flying the Eiger

Theres something about this photograph that captivates me.  The clouds?  The majesty that is the mountain in the background? or the fact that I still have a hard time believing that it's me in the photo?  


The experience, extremely exciting and fun, seems to have been amplified due to the awesomeness of the photos taken by Mandy.  A total stranger, Mandy, who we met on the side of the mountain sent me these photographs upon her return from vacation.  Viewing Mandy's experience through her lens is so different than my experience flying through the air.  She captures the beauty that is paragliding, the majesty of the Swiss Alps and the sharing of good times among the group of friends living life and sharing experiences only those who participate within can appreciate.

Experiencing the Swiss Alps for the first time is breath-taking.  Flying them & watching your friends BASE jump them within 24 hours of that first experience is mind-numbing.  The world of high action sports like paragliding, hanggliding, skydiving and BASE jumping is small.  The mixture of people who participate in two or more is smaller & it's much smaller among those who cross-over to all of the sports.  Many people who participate in one of the sports would love to cross over to the others but there are many reasons for not following through.  Money, life's obligations, proximity & training availability are just a few.  We in the San Francisco Bay Area are extremely fortunate to have all of those reasons obliterated.  We have some of the best paragliding & hang gliding sites within a 20 minute drive of the city.  There are three major dropzones located within a 1-2 hour drive and the Bay Area has one of the largest BASE communities in the world.  There are an abundant of schools to learn any of the sports & the community of cross-over pilots is rampantly exploding.  The explosive growth makes it easy for anyone who commits themselves to learn any and/or all of these sports from some of the best pilots in the world.


Friends from within the Bay Area free flight community share these experiences with anyone who expresses a sincere interest in any form of free flight & we ask for only one thing in return - that you pass on the experience when you become the big pimp.  It's this sense of community and sharing the experience of life among friends who share a common interest that took me to Switzerland and led to these photographs.

Erik flying the Eiger.

Dave Flying the Eiger

Jose flying the Eiger.

Lala flying the Eiger.

Flying the Eiger!

A Long Time in the Making

Learning to Fly - Hang Gliding from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

2010 NorCal Free Flight Film Festival

PPA 2010 from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.


Here's my entry for the 2010 NorCal Free Flight Film Festival.

The NorCal Free Flight Film Festival was held on December 9th, 2010 at the Roxie Theater in the Mission district of San Francisco.  Over 300 skydivers, BASE jumpers, paraglider & hangglider pilots showed up for the event & quickly overcrowded the 230 seat theater.  Unfortunately the theater staff closed the doors & 20 - 30 people remained outside until the last quarter of the show.

Nineteen films were entered this year and the quality of films blew everyones expectations.  The films may be viewed at;

http://vimeo.com/channels/norcalfreeflightfilmfest

Enjoy.

Wing Walking

Wing Walking from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

AirSharks

AirSharks from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

Sunscreen

Sunscreen Redux from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

Chasing Nova

Chasing Nova from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

MRB Triple Play from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

Home

Tiger

PPA Hang Gliding Division

PPA Hang Gliding Division from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

Back on the horse and it feels good!

This past weekend I got back on the horse not only in hang gliding which I hadn't done since 2005 but also in skydiving which I had not done in 9 months.  It felt great to jump all day Saturday & then hang glide Sunday morning followed by paragliding Sunday afternoon.  It made for a great weekend but I've spent the entire day Monday soar & achy.  It was well worth it & once again, I look forward to future weekends.

Keith Yoakum

Keith Yoakum - KIA, Taji, Iraq - Feb 2, 2007

NorCal FreeFlight Film Festival

NorCal FreeFlight Film Festival from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.

Air

Air from Jose Pruneda on Vimeo.



a film by me.

snowkite-made in alpes 2010- from simoneborgi on Vimeo.

Relative Work

CoastFeb2010 from David Royer on Vimeo.

Genius!

Paragliding the Church

Valle de Bravo, Mexico 2010

Valle de Bravo, Mexico 2010 from Jose on Vimeo.

Valle de Bravo, Mexico

The Onslaught Continues

Back in April I flew my GoPro Camera from Mussel Rock to the Chit Chat Cafe in Pacifica & back.  The GoPro was set to take a picture every 5 seconds.  This is a nice shot of the cliff in Pacifica that is eroding away causing the evacuation of all the resident in the center of five buildings.

Mussel Rock Beach ParaHang Formation Flying

2009 PPA Para Slideshow from Jose on Vimeo.

Fishing with ill Vision

T-Giving weekend coastal road trip.  Pacifica Pier to Salt Point.  Paragliding, crabbing, abaloni diving & camping.  Great weekend with good friends.

Wingsuit Formation National Record

Blue Shear

evening flight from David Royer on Vimeo.

The kids on the beach got an airshow.

Jimmy docking Dingo. Yesterday before mussel rock was blown out. Photo by Damien.

Blue Shear

The winds were light. I met up with Dingo in the parking lot, he had about 20 minutes of work remaining. Eric & Eric a couple of new guys showed up & I gave them a quick rundown of the site. Don't land in this area, stay out of the water, these are the launch sites, watch out for these rotors. Don't get blown back. It was a quick site intro.

Dingo finished his work & we decided there was no reason to sit around in the parking lot. It is better to go for a sled ride from the church instead of sitting around waiting for the winds to pick up. Although Dingo kept a good attitude about the winds I didn't think they would pick up in time for us to fly. One of my biggest indications was the birds, flapping their wings as they flew by.

We headed off to the church, JJ joining us. The winds seemed perfect up top. My immediate thought was it's perfect, time to fly! Dingo & JJ had their safety briefing while I spread the wing out & launched. I immediately hit sink & headed to the north facing bowl. An earlier flight indicated that it was west at the launch but immediately turned north once you got away from the wall. Sure enough I hit a bit of lift, not much but enough to get my wing even with the cliff. Hitting no more lift I headed back towards Mussel Rock scratching as close as possible. My thoughts were that the guys would not launch but then as I got away from their sight of view I hit booming lift. I turned around & the lift got stronger. My wing was even with the cliff again & before I knew it I was above the cliff and power lines. I headed straight for Dingo & JJ hooting & hollering all the way. As I went past them I realized that the winds were stronger & very northy. I headed away from the cliff, power lines, homes & streets, all the dangers that lurk behind launch.

It was cold when I suddenly realized I left my gloves in my harness. There seemed to be plenty of lift. Dingo & JJ geared up & launched. I was a good 300 feet above launch by this time. The cliff is about 600 feet putting me at about 900 feet AGL. I blew hot air into my hands as they became increasingly colder, believing I would have to cut the flight short I headed out to sea all the while climbing. I don't recall bumpy air on the way up. Suddenly everything became quite, the air became smooth & I felt a definite change in temperature. Temperature inversion I immediately thought. Lift was everywhere. It didn't matter where I flew I was climbing. I had entered a blue shear.

With the warm air my cold hands were no longer a problem. The air was clear, there was not a cloud in sight. JJ climbed to my altitude & headed south. It was the weirdest experience watching JJ climb in big ears. I followed him but at about the parking lot I noticed a shift in temperature. It became increasingly cold & I could see JJ, no longer in big ears, sinking ahead of me. I turned around & headed back into the warm air rising along with it. JJ continued south making it to the trailer park before turning around & setting down at Cheeta. Dingo & I continued flying out to sea. It was much safer than sitting right over the cliffs. The winds picked up enough that I pulled out the speed bar & for the remainder of the flight tested my forward penetration. I tried flying to Ft Funston as I would have loved to fly over it at above 1000 feet but the winds seemed very strong & although I was penetrating I was moving forward extremely slow. I tried finding the north end of the cold air but decided to stay within the safety of the dumps & the rising warm air all around me.

The view was fantastic, the air smooth & warm. Although I didn't have an altimeter I along with those at the parking lot came to the conclusion that I was easily at the class b airspace limit. Looking back I could see the 3 Crystal Springs Reseviours, all of downtown San Francisco and a tiny edge of Treasure Island. Dingo made it to my altitude then started spiraling. I couldn't figure out why he would leave the smooth warm air & continue flying. The sun was easily up for another 30 - 45 minutes. I watched him spiral all the way down, setup for landing & land. I was the only one flying at this point. The winds below were extremely light therefore nobody could take off from the dumps. Later I would find out that Dingo's speedbar broke & thus the reason for his spiraling out of the strong winds.

It was extremely quiet. My only concern was that I was at the bottom limit of the SFO class b airspace. I watched for airliners taking off from SFO not finding any sign of activity on the runways or taxiways. Although I could hear the low hum of an airline engine, scanning the horizon I didn't notice any airplanes. I then caught myself looking around for an airliner before realizing it was just the sound of my lines cutting through the air. It sounded like an airliner in the distance, complete with changes in the sound of the engines. I later realized this was my wing speeding up & slowing down.

First I felt a few bumps then the cold air. I was descending through the shear. I noticed the sound of the waves below as my wing became very active forcing me to stop taking in the views & fly the wing. Once I broke through the shear that was it. I was in complete sink. I thought about top landing at the church but the air was so bumpy I decided to land next to Dingo in the kiting area. Flying through the bumps was like flying in the mountains. At about 300 feet or so the bumps stopped & the winds eased. I came in on a no wind landing next to Dingo, addrenaline pumping through me, the flight not being the sledder we thought it would instead becoming one of the best paraglider flights of my life.

These photos are from earlier in the year. Although I didn't have a camera with me, Dingo video'd the entire flight.

ParaHang Contact

First contact.

Earlier this year. Dingo flying between Jimmy & I. Photo by Rick.